The invention relates generally to cookers and cooking methods and more particularly to continuous forced-convection cookers and methods for cooking food products conveyed in trays through a cooking chamber.
Forced-convection steam cookers are used to cook food products, such as shrimp or vegetables, in a continuous cooking process. Uncooked products are deposited on a foraminous conveyor belt and conveyed through a cooking chamber in the cooker. Blowers in the cooker force a cooking fluid, such as steam, through the foraminous conveyor belt and the product being conveyed through the cooking chamber. If the product mat atop the belt is too thick, the product is not thoroughly cooked throughout the depth of the mat. Some cookers use an S-bend in the conveying path to reposition the product midway through the cooking process to improve the probability of achieving thorough cooking. But S-bends require more vertical space and a more complicated sprocket arrangement to form the bend. Sometimes food products are conveyed through cookers in trays for easier handling after cooking. But if the trays are loaded too deeply, the product will not be cooked throughout. So it becomes necessary to carefully limit the amount of product deposited on each tray.
Thus, there is a need for a cooking system that can thoroughly cook masses of food products in a continuous process.